Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

The Pale Knight stood in front of the bank.

This was not his first time standing in front of a bank like this.

Only those days were too far from now, he had been too straight-laced for too long and those crazy memories had been diluted by time into a blur.

So now he had only one feeling - it was shocking to see Batman robbing a bank!

In the majority of universes, Batman looked very similar, and despite the Prime Universe Batman and Bruce having very different demeanors, if one looked closely, their facial features were very much alike; if photos of them both were taken from the same angle, they looked like pictures of the same person from different times.

The Batman from the Pale Knight's universe wasn't unique either. That is to say, he looked like the classic Batman and wasn't much older than Bruce, leading the Pale Knight to identify this face as Batman.

He was indeed no longer a die-hard fan of Batman, but don't ask, because asking is reminiscent of a past love, he really couldn't accept someone with that face robbing a bank.

Those who have chased stars might understand, many people speak of their former favorite stars as if it's a matter of public record, but really, very few are willing to sincerely admit that their poor taste in the past was to blame for their misguided passion.

The expression in the Pale Knight's eyes was hard to describe.

Bruce, however, was completely unaffected by him. He raised his gun again, first pointing towards the counter as he said, "Put your hands where I can see them, and it better not look like anyone is secretly calling the police."

"There! You!" He then turned the gun toward a customer by the window and said, "You've got an emergency alert device on your phone, right? Throw it out now."

"And you! You fucking moved a little step towards the alarm bell, didn't you? Get back there now or I'll blow your head off!"

Because his movements were so swift and his eyes as sharp as a hawk's, none of the customers being served outside or the tellers inside had a chance to press the alarm bell. Anyone who made the slightest movement was immediately spotted by Bruce.

At first, a few tellers thought about trying to press the panic button under their desks from a blind spot in his line of sight, but they didn't even get a chance to move before Bruce pointed the gun barrel their way.

Seeing the dark barrel of the rifle, nobody dared make a move; after all, they were just there to work. Why risk their lives?

Bruce held his gun as he led the Pale Knight inside, and in a lowered voice, the Pale Knight asked, "Aren't you going to find someone to lead the way?"

"Lead the way for what?"

"Do you know how to get to the vault?"

Bruce snorted coldly and motioned with his eyes toward the left. The Pale Knight looked that way but saw nothing.

"Fire evacuation plan." Bruce said. "A glance tells you where the vault is."

The Pale Knight took a look.

He couldn't make anything out from it.

Normally, a fire evacuation plan only shows the layout of one floor, but the counters and the vault of a bank could not possibly be on the same floor. How could he possibly tell from this floor's layout where the vault was?

Bruce opened the door leading to the stairwell.

"Now I need two hostages," Bruce announced with his gun raised. "Those of you born in January, step forward."

"Nobody moved."

Bruce immediately fired a shot at the floor near a man crouching by a table by the window.

Bang!

Tiles shattered, and both the bank's teller and the client scrambled away in panic; it took a while before the man on the ground slowly and shakily raised his hand saying, "I—I was born on January 13th..."

Soon, a female teller stood up and said, "I was born on January 2nd..."

"Good, the two of you it is. Now come towards me on all fours, and everyone else stay put."

The two didn't dare resist and crawled over as fast as possible. The Pale Knight whispered, "How did you know that guy was born in January?"

"When we came in, he was holding a customized card in his hand, the kind the bank issues to major clients. It had a Capricorn symbol on it, which most likely means a January birthday."

The Pale Knight only wanted to say, with that mind and those eyes, why rob a bank at all?

Wait, had he not once complained that with all his money and high intelligence, why be Batman at all?

"I'm sorry, I was wrong." The Pale Knight silently apologized to the Batman of his universe in his heart. It's still better to be Batman, constantly busy and useless, especially because being useless is key.

At that moment, the pale knight suddenly realized if he had managed to get Gotham back on its feet, wouldn't Batman be left idle?!

Absolutely not, the pale knight thought.

This Bruce in front of him clearly had grown idle under the lack of pressure. Rich, smart, and with nothing to do, surely he would turn to crime for excitement after feeling empty for so long.

The pale knight began to frantically dig through his memories for criminal methods, swearing as he did so. How could these effects of the medicine be so potent? How did I use to commit crimes?

But no matter how hard it was to recall, he had to think. He couldn't let Batman remain unbothered for too long; he must stir up some crimes to give him something to do.

After searching deep and scrapping his mind for a long time, the pale knight couldn't recover many useful memories. The time he spent in healing was painful and confusing; he lost many memories and really couldn't recall much suddenly.

No matter, though he wasn't fit for the task any longer, Gotham always had talented individuals. He could choose the wise and capable, recognizing the right people for the right jobs—it was time to rebuild the Arkham Alliance.

In the blink of an eye, the hands of the two men were tied behind their backs by Bruce. Although their legs weren't tied, one could tell from the muscular lines of their bodies that neither of them practiced any fighting arts. Unable to use their arms, they staggered when they walked, effectively neutralizing any threat.

After entering the stairwell with the two hostages, Bruce immediately closed the door between the passageways. Unfortunately, it was a fire door and couldn't be locked from the outside. He then led the hostages downstairs.

Indeed, downstairs housed the vault, but in this modern era, bank security measures were highly sophisticated. Even a smaller city-level bank couldn't have its vault opened by conventional means; even using cutting tools would take a considerable time. What was Bruce planning to use to open it?

"I… I don't know the code," one female teller suddenly spoke up. "Even if you bind me, it's useless. The main vault door needs remote control activation. Without authorization, nobody can open it."

"Oh," was all that Bruce replied.

The pale knight glanced at the teller's face, which showed signs of fear from being startled, though not much. There was even a hint of mockery as if she was mocking Bruce for being a clumsy thief.

Her reaction was not strange. On average, every ten years of a bank employee's career in America, they experience 14 to 15 bank robberies. In states with poor security, this number could even soar to several dozen. This meant that every two or three months someone attempted a bank robbery.

But among those attempts, those who truly succeeded—here, success means seizing wealth over 100,000 US dollars—were exceedingly rare. Those who managed to escape with that money almost always made history. One could count them on one hand.

Everyone in the world knew that banks held money. Bank owners weren't foolish; if they didn't invest in security, did they expect to just give their money away to thieves?

The pale knight assessed the resources currently at Bruce's disposal and concluded that his chances of walking out of the bank with cash were zero.

No breaking and entering tools, no explosives, not even a simple cutting device. With just one gun as their arsenal, if they could rob this bank, the bankers could have gone bankrupt long ago.

He really didn't know where Bruce got his confidence.

The pale knight sighed internally. If Bruce had just taken some money from the counter, this plan wouldn't have been a complete failure.

Though bank counters now weren't allowed to hold much cash, there were still a few thousand dollars available—a sum that was actually sufficient for them, covering basic food, accommodation, and fuel. Local costs seemed low; as long as they didn't seek a high standard of living, these few thousand dollars could last until the end of their game.

But Bruce seemed to disdain such a small amount of money, so the pale knight could only wait to see how he intended to open the vault.

They slowly approached the fork leading to the vault; the right passage led to the money vault door, straight ahead another stairwell.

Bruce chose to go straight.

He didn't even look at the vault door, keeping his eyes straight ahead as he walked past it.

Upon reaching the opposite stairwell, Bruce pushed the woman back and entered the stairwell with the pale knight, leaving the female teller in the hallway.

Bruce boldly walked up the stairwell on this side. Due to the commotion he had caused upstairs before, all the customers had fled. The tellers hid inside the safe room, leaving only one at the door waiting for the police.

The entire first floor of the bank was wide open. Although faint sounds of police sirens were nearing, the brief few minutes of downtime were enough for Bruce and his hostage to exit through the bank's side door and successfully circle back to the car.

Bruce dumped the man in the backseat.

"Listen, sir, we're from Canada, here for a quick job. If we had brazenly robbed the bank and succeeded, the police would chase us to the ends of the earth. But if it's just your disappearance, they won't make such an effort. You must have quite a few enemies, right?"

The man in the backseat looked as though he might cry.

That was when the pale knight finally realized, darn it, this isn't a bank robbery; this is a banker robbery.

Now he understood why Bruce could say that the man was holding a customized constellation card—it turned out he had targeted him from the start.

The pale knight recalled again; from the first-floor fire escape layout, the bank appeared not to have a VIP reception room. This wasn't surprising. Generally, only the main branch in the city would have a fully equipped reception facility; other branches only had individual counters.

But the desk where the man sat had the best view in the entire bank. It was by the window but not next to the street, and there were dense plants outside, offering good scenery and reasonable privacy.

Moreover, the salesperson serving the man had dressed appropriately and smiled warmly. From the overall demeanor, it seemed that he was a client manager.

Combined with the customized card he held, it was clear— he was a major client of the bank.